i went to the second site where you said we can vote for it but i couldn't figure out how to, everything is in a weird language that makes no sense to me. once i figure out how to vote i will definitely encourage everyone to do so! in the meantime everyone should watch this little film.

i'll now talk a bit about what i liked:

- for starters, it's short. it doesn't waste any time doing things that many bad short films fall trap to. a lot of short films waste too much time on silence or useless dialogue. there is no expository dialogue in this story apart from the simple identification of the main character that he repeats a few times and couldn't be explained any other way without giving away the ending, that is when he says "i work on tor" and gives some information about his background. the rest of the short is just the training, i love it.

- on the subject of the training. it's a great idea to make a film around this idea of physical training. as we all know it's useful in montages to progress a story where simply learning something creates a momentum and an internal narrative of progression where a character can grow. this is basic story telling. what i think is neat about something as simple as as this short film is that it engages the audience with the proven method of physical activity suggestive of violence without stooping to one of the other great pitfalls of crappy shorts which is showing actual violence. real graphic violence is almost NEVER earned in short films, it's just a cheap way to get someone's attention and personally i have always found it embarrassing and amateur in execution. murder, blood, extreme violence or language, this is the arsenal of a hack short film maker (sorry anyone who does this on a regular basis).

- it has a great structure whereby the end will make you want to rewatch the beginning and maybe reassess the way you looked at this character at the start. the ending of the film really dictates what kind of film it is. at first it made me wonder what is this, some kind of public service announcement? but your backstory (that it's based on your experience) kind of explains where the film is coming from. the lead actor is very good at doing everything the film requires, and that is going from someone who is not taking things seriously to someone who is.

- it's not perfect. somehow feels a bit incomplete but i think that was always going to be the case as the film is all about an introduction of some sort. it's sort of about a "first step". so it's not that important that the ending supply us with anything more than the character's realisation of this first step.

a few questions:

- what does GREP mean? -- oh nevermind i figured this out, it's GRIP. awesome title! add it to the list of things i like, definitely gels with the theme of the story.- what did you shoot on? (the omnipresent 7D? if so you'll get a news header!)- how many shorts have you made that are at the technical and performance level of this one? is this your big foray into the festival/comp circuit? is it just one many great shorts you've made? (i'm guessing you were writer/director)- again.. how do i vote?

Holy shit! I just got an Honorable Mention from the jury but I'm on the bus home! Ah, well.

Again, thank you for the comments.

You really got what I tried to do by focusing so much on the training, the steps of the program. I wanted to show how systematically one has to learn to lodge another person to the floor, and how technical these training sessions are, leaving little room for, or encouragement of, reflections around the use of restraint. A big chunk of the people working in these institutions in Norway are students who work part time, and this sort of work really requires every inch of your attention. As I wanted to show, these situations will almost certainly make the participants reflect around what they're doing, but there's still no official forum for reflection. It just has to be accepted. And this program is just one of many different ways to engage with the "users" (also something of a misnomer), that are rarely said to be what they often are: a program specific to the given institution, and not something set in stone and official. Hopefully a tad of this is in the film through negation - by ethics never being brought up, hopefully they importance comes through in their absence.

Which also applies to the violence, as you say. It's THERE, but it's not, because the participants are just learning this as if it was a martial arts program (which it in all practicality is, only one that must and will be used). Hopefully, the violence of the lack of violence comes through. I'm glad it did for you!

We shot it on a Sony EX-1 with a 35mm adapter. Just got myself a 7D though and have an upcoming short shot on it. Have made a slew of shorts that are all incomplete at some level (and with plenty of "silence and useless dialogue"). This is the first I've entered into any competition, and the one I'm most pleased with both technically and performance-wise. Pleased enough to finish it

The color grade is pretty dark, so if you have a new mac-monitor the gamma might be so low on it that important face-detail might be lost. I haven't had the time to cross-check with too many monitors, and at the moment my laptop is the only screen I've found that's too dark, but that one still has the factory settings so there are probably many displays like it.

Basically: if you can't see the stamp on his arm in the end of the first scene, the monitor's probably too dark. Please give a shout if this is the case, so I get a feel of how many people out there are with monitors like that. You can continue watching if you like, but there'll be a lack of detail in certain important places.

It's my first since "GREP", and this is also loosely based on my own experiences, but with a character a bit more removed from me.